The M2TW hardware thread: please post all hardware queries here

[irishron2004]

I have manged to crash the graphics on the vanilla M2TW version 1.03 at end of turn with 90 regions controlled. I ran task manager on the last one to check memory usage. The chages in medieval2.exe were with the graphics. In the Russian steppes it was about 295,000kb. In the mountains and western Europe it went over 300,000kb. It was the only one I noticed changing.
At the end of the last turn, two of the symbols down thw left side were corrupted. I hit alt-tab to check memory usage and nothing that i had not seen before. I re-entered the game to finish the turn and the video corruption had gon through the campaign map, minimap, building queue, and the rest of the end of turn symbols. When I clicked on a couple of them, the info was corrupted.
I tested this machine with your analyzer in the first post and it passed everything. MY specs are:
cpu: AMD 64 2 core 4600
video: ATI x1950pro 256mb ddr3
memory: 3gb
OS: Win XP SP2, .Net2.0, dx9.0.c
Harddrive: 160gb
dvd: 20x
All drivers are up to date. Registry cleaner has been run. Hd defragged.
Now why can I not take every region without this happening? What is causing it? Is there a program to fix it?
I was always able to take the whole map in the original MTW, and all of the Mundus Magnus map in RTW, so why not M2TW unmodified?

[sapi]

This may sound like an odd question, but is it hot where you live?

[irishron2004]

This may sound like an odd question, but is it hot where you live?

Being central California, lows in the 30's and 40's whether it's raining or not, highs in the 50's. Typical winter weather.

[sapi]

Being central California, lows in the 30's and 40's whether it's raining or not, highs in the 50's. Typical winter weather.

Okay, that rules out overheating (I don't think we ever get down to your 'high' of 10 degrees over here )

Try uninstalling your current graphics drivers, then replacing them with the latest ones from the relevant manufacturer's website...

[irishron2004]

I forgot about centigrade. Mine are in farenheit. In fact, outside my bedroom window right now it is 39 degrees farenheit.

Did the driver thing when I put the new card in. In fact I went through this on Microsoft's vga drivers to get rid of anything that smelled, looked, or felt like nVidia before installing ATI's. I did not then nor do I now need the conflict. In fact after using both, O consider it a personal choice. I have had good luck with both.

Now, may I please bear upon you to let me in on what it would take to prove that this is a memory/resource issue? If your team there has a test that I can install and run on my machine I would love to prove me wrong and you right. That is all I am asking and I don't consider it the end of the programming world.

[sapi]

Well I really don't know about the memory issue; it could be unreleated (I certainly don't have a team here, I assure you, totally unofficial here )...

The only problems I've seen myself that commonly lead to graphics distortion are a) overheating and b) malfunctioning graphics drivers, though someone else might have some more ideas for you...

[irishron2004]

This is the reason I say memory.
One of people in another forum said to check for memory leaks using task manager. I did this for a couple turns before my campaign graphics crashed.
Every few regions of updating the building queues, I would check it. The only thing I saw change was the medieval2.exe itself.
After clicking the end -of-turn button, the symbols start dropping down the left side as programmed. I noticed two of them getting corrupted so I hit alt-tab to check task manager.
While I am checking the running processes, the harddrive starts to work and I notice the .exe memory jumps from 305meg to 307meg and the commitcharge jumps from 809meg to 813meg. I hit alt-tab to get back in the game and my screen is one layer of symbols. No more campaign map, no more minimap, no more building queue, no more rightside controls, no more faction button. The only way out is reboot the system.
Heat? This room hasn't even hit 70 degrees and it's 32 outside.
I would be willing to take this offline and either pm or email discuss this further just because I could do it in the same place with the same amount of factions and units whether high graphics setting or bare minimum. I am old enough to remember memory leaks in the first games written for cga.